The Bolivian Amazon: 3 days on the pampas tour.

You can visit the Amazon from several countries in South America and choosing to visit it from Bolivia definitely has its perks due to its central location and budget friendly prices. It’s also significantly cheaper than other countries (yes, looking at you Brazil). Visiting the Amazon pampas with Fluvial Tours was so much better than I expected. There are two types of tours of the amazon, the jungle and the pampas tour. After having done the pampas tour, I wish I had planned the time to do both but for me I’m glad I picked the pampas.
The main difference between the two tours is the wildlife. On the pampas you see lots of wildlife along the banks of the river. However you don’t actually go into the amazon rainforest and spend most of the time on a boat.
The jungle tour consists more of walking through the jungle seeing and identifying flora. The wildlife seen is much more sparc. The jungle is so dense spotting wildlife proves much more difficult although you experience staying deep in the amazon rainforest.

Flying into the rural town of Rurrenabaque over the Amazon gave me a real appreciation of just how vast the Amazon is. Rolling hills of thick jungle stretched as far as the eye can see.
I booked my 3 day 2 night pampas tour in La Paz with Treasa in Fluvial Tours. The tour cost 1650 Bolivians (€213) and this included flights to Rurrenabaque. There is an option of getting a bus here but it can take up to 20 hours and just two months ago 25 people died when a bus went off the side of the cliff, the road known as Death Road. I do love a good bargain and at €9 for a bus ticket this sounded good but I also value my life so I decided to put the price of €100 and pay for the flight. I don’t know how Treasa does it, the flights with Amazonas online are €150 return alone so how she manages to get a 3 day tour including all meals and transport, I’m just not sure. Her office is in Inca Rooms Hotel and her reputation for providing great tours at better prices stretches as far as Colombia and Ecuador, where other backpackers told me about this tour.

The flight from La Paz is a 45 min flight and lands in the tiny shack of an airport in Rurrenabaque.

I got a taxi which drove around the world for sport giving me a tour of the rural town on the edge of the amazon. After checking into my hostel, El Curchial, I went for a wander around to stock up on insect repellent and see what the town had to offer. It’s a nice little town with a lively market on the river banks and a few nice restaurants and cafes.

A few places to eat:

• Luz de Mar- great for breakfast and famous for their desserts. I got dinner here and they’ve a vegetarian menu. I had a vegan coconut curry which was delicious but took about an hour to arrive. 
• French bakery- proper bread, mini pizzas, croissants and pain au chocolates. Everything I’ve missed.
• Yummy- crepes, smoothies, coffee and acai bowls.

Day 1:

The driver picked me up from my hostel at 9.30 am, a very reasonable hour. In our 7 seater car I met the other four who I would be sharing this experience with for the next three days. Luckily we had a great group and were all sound bunch of young backpackers excited to get into the Amazon.

It’s a pretty bumpy 3 hour drive from Rurrenabaque to Santa Rosa, the town nearest to the river. To call it a road would be extremely generous, it was basically just a sand/dust area with wet plains on either side. Before we had even arrived we saw so many animals along the way. The driver spotted a sloth in a tree that we hopped out to watch.

After lunch in Santa Rosa, we went another 5 mins in the car to where the boats were lined up ready to take us to our lodges.

The boat trip was about three hours as we took our time meandering down stopping every few minutes to take photos and spot the wildlife in the water and along the banks. I didn’t expect to see so many animals just chilling on the river banks and in the trees. Already within the first few hours we saw sloths, alligators, black caymans, turtles, monkeys, macaws, capybara, herrings and loads of other birds I’ve no idea of the names.

The accommodation river side was basic but perfect for a few nights. I didn’t expect showers or electricity in the jungle and to my surprise we had both. The electricity worked between 6-10 pm. The food was incredible on the tour. Solene and I were nearly sick of eating after there was that much food and it was all amazing. When we got to the camp the cooks had cookies and popcorn waiting for us to keep hunger at bay until dinner. After our snack we headed in the boat again to watch sunset and see the alligators eyes glow in the dark on the way back. 
Sunset was magical. I’ve had a few moments on this trip and in life in general but more often in the last few months where I take what I call a picture memory. These are even better than actual pictures where I try take a picture with my eyes and think… I want to remember this moment without a camera. The sun was setting turning the sky shades of orange, pink and purple and visibly disappearing behind the clouds creating that golden glow over the football pitches. While I decided to stand and just enjoy the moment, not just viewing it through the medium of a screen, I did manage to steal a photo before the sun disappeared.

There were a few other groups enjoying the sunset so we started up a game of volleyball. My mate played a game of football with the local kids last week on the same tour and came back with a broken big toe. He made the mistake of giving the kids the advantage over him of wearing footwear. I decided to stick to volleyball to avoid any trips to a Bolivian A&E department.

On the way back after the sun had set we kept a look out for the eyes of the cayman and alligators with our torches. There eyes shone like amber tiny lights. 
After an incredible meal we headed to bed and got a great sleep with the sounds of the monkeys on the roof and crickets chirping.

Day 2:

The pampas is a very relaxed tour with minimal physical exertion and no alarms set for dawn. This is a welcomed change after having ridden down death road and climbed Huayna Potosi. After a delightful breakfast of fruit, eggs, pancakes and other delicious fried things with copious amounts of dulce de leche (caramel in a jar) we set off to find anacondas in the wet grasslands.

They gave us wellie boots to prevent any snakes or insects getting at your ankles. The water was almost to my knee at one point so they were much needed. After a while another group spotted an anaconda and we ran over to see it before it slithered away.

They can be pretty dangerous and can eat a small alligator. Being so close to them in the wild was pretty amazing.
After anaconda hunting we went back for lunch to the lodge.

After lunch we got sorted to head out again on the boat to find pink dolphins. They’re extremely rare and only found in the amazon. Our guide Ronaldo had warned us we wouldn’t be able to swim if we didn’t find dolphins as it wouldn’t be safe. Apparently the dolphins are very territorial and protect the tourists when they swim so once dolphins are present, they’re won’t be alligators or piranha. Although I find this hard to believe as no more than 50 m away from where the dolphins were circling, I could see an alligator waiting for his next meal by the river bank. Solene and I let the three lads hop in first to test the water, excuse the pun. Probably the most terrifying thing I experienced during the 3 days in the amazon was taking a leap of faith and jumping into the muddy water where we had just passed an alligator chilling near the bank and where we knew we were going piranha fishing a few minutes later.

We didn’t have to go too far to find the dolphins. They don’t come out of the water too much, no flying flippers but you can see their smooth grey backs with a tint of pink breaking the surface followed by a release of air. The water is so muddy you have no clue as to what is below you or where the dolphins have gone once they submerge. There was about 4 dolphins playing together and circling around. By now I was happy enough the odds were in my favour to come away with all limbs intact so I hopped in. Every so often I’d let an all merciful scream, sure a piranha or alligator had touched me but I think it was just a combination of the dolphins and some floating leaves.

It was amazing to see the dolphins play and swim around us. They seemed very happy to have us swimming in their environment and protective, almost enclosing us in an area. I lost my shit every time I saw them poke their heads up and due to my over excitement, seemed to drop or forget I’d a gopro in my hand to capture much of the dolphins on video. Just a lot of brown muddy water and ooh la la and wows from the French and I. However I can confirm that the dolphins really are pink, they’re noses and undersides are a pinky greyish colour.

Only about 100 m away down the river we stopped the boat to catch your dinner, literally.

Ronaldo gave us a line and hook attached, a little dish of bate and a demonstration.
“Mirar” (look) he says as he throws the line out 3 meters, tugs on the line and reels in a flapping piranha.

“Y entonces, tiennes la cena” (and then, you have dinner).

Grand, looks simple. This should be easy. Not so much. Firstly the little feckers have an ability to eat the bait and not get caught on the hook and if you do manage to not get your line tangled, it goes about half a foot from the boat. Not to mention if you are lucky enough to catch one, they have deadly sharp teeth and can live for 45 minutes outside of the water. So this deadly fish with razor sharp teeth will be swinging from the end of the string once you bring it into the boat at the level on everyone’s knees.

After catching a couple of sardines which were used for bate, I finally caught a small piranha. Delighted with the catch of the day, I was pretty content to hang up my fishing career there.

We gutted the piranha and put them on a stick, ready to be grilled for dinner that night. They were delicious! Not too much meat on them but the bit that was was amazing.

Day 3:

After another leisurely breakfast at 8 am of the same tasty fried and sugary pancakes, donuts and fruit we headed out on the boat to see some more wildlife and pet a few black caiman (casually), who prey on humans and basically anything it fancies. It’s the top of the food chain here. We relaxed on the boat and saw all of the same animals as before. They’re are cayman and alligators absolutely everywhere!

We spotted two dolphins so one of the lads jumped into the river to cool off. We could see a cayman on the river bank not far away at all. The cayman then slipped into the river as if he had clocked his lunch. The dolphins were no longer making an appearance so it was getting risky to swim knowing the cayman and just slunk into the river whilst making eye contact with us. If that wasn’t dangerous or anything Ronaldo pulled the boat over to a bank with two alligators and a black caiman resting on it with his jaws open.

I swear he does actually speak to animals like he says he does. We asked him if we could get off the boat too alongside the alligators. 

“Todo es posible, nada es seguro” (everything is possible, nothing is safe). 

Cheers Ronaldo. The caiman nor alligators seemed too phased by us to be fair, the caiman started to make moves on Ronaldo a few times but after some whispering, he didn’t approach any further. This was a fairly surreal experience being so close to black caimans and alligators wild in the Amazon. We made sure not to overstay our welcome any longer so as not to royally piss Frank off (we named the caiman). 

After our final lunch we got back on the boat for the last time to take us to Santa Rosa where the car brought us back to Rurrenabaque, and me straight to the airport.

When I landed in La Paz I skipped the 70 (€9) Bolivians taxi and caught a collective to the centre for 5 (0.60c) instead. This was one of the best tours I’ve done in my six plus months in south America. Thanks to Bolivia’s ridiculously low cost of living, I was able to experience the Amazon like a king.